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Unassisted Fundie Births


JermajestyDuggar

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If anyone is interested, here is a link to a website about unassisted homebirths and “herbal remedies” for infertility and birthing. This story in particular is written by an obviously fundie woman and it made me laugh out loud at a few parts: 

http://birthjunkie.com/category/hospital-transfer-for-birth/

Here are some quotes you may find amusing since it’s a long read:

“Sometime during the pushing, my midwife said that there was too much blood. A moment later she was more emphatic. “We have to stop this bleeding.” We all started praying against the bleeding. My husband commanded it to stop in the name of Jesus, and the midwife exclaimed, “It stopped! It was just like a faucet being turned off.”

“As we approached my due date of September 24th, my husband thought he heard from the Lord that the baby would be born on the 15th and that it was another boy!”

^^^Guess what! She didn’t have the baby for another two weeks and it was a girl, lol! God didn’t talk to you dude. It was all just wishful thinking.

”The baby kept coming down and then going back up, and they used a vacuum extractor that wouldn’t work properly (Praise the Lord, as I found out later how risky their use is! I saw a 20/20 show just a week or so later, and was horrified),”

Well if you saw it on 20/20, it must be true! She also got her earliest info about unnecessary csections on Phil Donahue, lol.

The rest of the very long read is filled with all nine of her birth stories. It vilified the hell out of doctors and hospitals of course. It’s to be expected from a site dedicated to births without even a midwife present. It’s all about trusting the lord enough to have your birth at home without any help *eyeroll*

I am going to keep looking around the website but I doubt they will post any stories of unassisted homebirths that have a horrible outcome. She mentions her sister having a funeral for a baby and her sister has had 5 unassisted homebirths. She never says if the lost baby was an unassisted Home birth. 

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Goodness. This lady sounds like she's not well-educated about births at all. And she's had 9? Jeez. 

Note: if she had a midwife, that particular birth was not "unassisted." Unassisted is without any medical personnel. Don't think that's what you meant, just wanted to clarify for people who haven't heard about any of this stuff before!

Read a little more (it's a terrible wall o'words) and she seems a bit off her rocker in general. 

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2 minutes ago, Lisafer said:

Goodness. This lady sounds like she's not well-educated about births at all. And she's had 9? Jeez. 

Note: if she had a midwife, that particular birth was not "unassisted." Unassisted is without any medical personnel. Don't think that's what you meant, just wanted to clarify for people who haven't heard about any of this stuff before!

I should have clarified. She had only 1 unassisted home birth. I think her first 4 were c sections (she deemed unnecessary later on) and 3 assisted home births with a midwife, then her one and only unassisted home birth which she thought was the bees knees. Then her last birth was supposed to be another unassisted homebirth but she “caved” and went to the hospital to have a vaginal birth. Which she deeply regretted and cried over for two weeks. 

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1 minute ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I should have clarified. She had only 1 unassisted home birth. I think her first 4 were c sections (she deemed unnecessary later on) and 3 assisted home births with a midwife, then her one and only unassisted home birth which she thought was the bees knees. Then her last birth was supposed to be another unassisted homebirth but she “caved” and went to the hospital to have a vaginal birth. Which she deeply regretted and cried over for two weeks. 

These were in the 70s and 80s, right? I wonder what her kids think about their mother now...

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11 minutes ago, Lisafer said:

These were in the 70s and 80s, right? I wonder what her kids think about their mother now...

Her first child was born in 79 while her last was 98. So her only unassisted birth was in the 90s.

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2 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Her first child was born in 79 while her last was 98. So her only unassisted birth was in the 90s.

Oh, ok. She's probably about the same age as my mom, then. I was born at home, but with the assistance of a truly lovely midwife who was present for some of my siblings as well. I still remember her coming to the house to check on my mom in later pregnancies. 

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I had three easy, straightforward births. I THOUGHT about having the last one at home because I felt that it was going to be the shortest and easiest of the three. However, that's where I have to hand it to my X. His X-wife had c-sections b/c of some pelvic abnormality (I don't remember now what it was) and when I said I was thinking about having the baby at home he flipped his shit...but, when the baby was born, he was like "is that it?". 

Baby #3 was the easiest. The only labor intervention was breaking my water just to speed things up. From when the doctor broke my water to birth was 94 minutes. He was born during a Star Trek TNG re-run during the bottom of the hour commercial break. By the time the show was back on, I was peacefully nursing our son. 

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53 minutes ago, Lisafer said:

Oh, ok. She's probably about the same age as my mom, then. I was born at home, but with the assistance of a truly lovely midwife who was present for some of my siblings as well. I still remember her coming to the house to check on my mom in later pregnancies. 

Her beloved Christian midwife was not certified in her state and the state did not allow her to be certified (red flag) and that’s why she decided on an unassisted homebirth. Because she couldn’t find a good Christian midwife that was certified. 

13 minutes ago, feministxtian said:

I had three easy, straightforward births. I THOUGHT about having the last one at home because I felt that it was going to be the shortest and easiest of the three. However, that's where I have to hand it to my X. His X-wife had c-sections b/c of some pelvic abnormality (I don't remember now what it was) and when I said I was thinking about having the baby at home he flipped his shit...but, when the baby was born, he was like "is that it?". 

Baby #3 was the easiest. The only labor intervention was breaking my water just to speed things up. From when the doctor broke my water to birth was 94 minutes. He was born during a Star Trek TNG re-run during the bottom of the hour commercial break. By the time the show was back on, I was peacefully nursing our son. 

My second child was less than two hours from first contraction to birth. I was afraid I would have him in the car on the way to the hospital. The doctors and nurses didn’t do much but I was very glad they were there. They were helping me to focus. I needed that much more than any medical intervention. 

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23 minutes ago, feministxtian said:

He was born during a Star Trek TNG re-run during the bottom of the hour commercial break. By the time the show was back on, I was peacefully nursing our son. 

Which episode? :pb_lol:

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16 minutes ago, ladyamylynn said:

Which episode? :pb_lol:

I don't remember. I mean, the kid is 28 now. I remember his birth quite well, but the rest is long gone. 

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My cousin’s birth was four hours. I don’t know if that was active labour or what. He also needed both forceps *and* a ventouse. 

I can’t believe fundies are this dumb. Thank God Kendra Duggar was sensible and went to hospital. I understand wanting a home birth, but you HAVE to be flexible about these things, and you NEED proper monitoring.  

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Andrea Mills talks on Youtube about why she prefers unassisted home births and why she does her own prenatal care as well: 

Spoiler

 

There are several videos about her various (unassisted) homebirths and the attempts.The Mills also have Audio bible played throughout their whole tiny house 24/7......

 

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NicNog used to like the whole unassisted birthing thing too. Thankfully she was sensible enough to go to a hospital when she knew something was wrong. It saved her life but it didn’t save the life of William. I hope Nic is never pregnant again but if she is, I wouldn’t be surprised if she had another hospital birth. I think Zoo Anderson is done with assisted homebirths. She loved her epidural way too much to ever go back. 

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One of the things that I find extremely frustrating is the insistence that the section of Genesis that deals with the fall is taken so literally. Women ‘can’t’ have medical intervention for childbirth because it says in the Bible that it’s supposed to be unpleasant. I can’t think of any other situation in which medical professionals are so consistently vilified. Yes, childbirth is natural but death during childbirth is also ‘natural’ (for mother and/or baby).

I am not against homebirths in general but I live in a country with single-payer healthcare and well-trained midwives, so there is little to no financial reason to avoid antenatal care/monitoring, regardless of the birth plan, and there is no out of pocket cost to having 15 hospital births (or the same number of home deliveries attended by professionals). I can’t help but wonder if there’s a financial element to the strong emphasis on home births (possibly unattended and often following minimal antenatal care) in this group.

 

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2 hours ago, tabitha2 said:

Hopefully not the one where Troy is impregnated by an alien beam of light..

Or the one where Dr. Crusher bangs her dead grandma's ghost boyfriend! 

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1 hour ago, Jellybean said:

One of the things that I find extremely frustrating is the insistence that the section of Genesis that deals with the fall is taken so literally. Women ‘can’t’ have medical intervention for childbirth because it says in the Bible that it’s supposed to be unpleasant. I can’t think of any other situation in which medical professionals are so consistently vilified. Yes, childbirth is natural but death during childbirth is also ‘natural’ (for mother and/or baby).

I am not against homebirths in general but I live in a country with single-payer healthcare and well-trained midwives, so there is little to no financial reason to avoid antenatal care/monitoring, regardless of the birth plan, and there is no out of pocket cost to having 15 hospital births (or the same number of home deliveries attended by professionals). I can’t help but wonder if there’s a financial element to the strong emphasis on home births (possibly unattended and often following minimal antenatal care) in this group.

 

Money plays into it, but I also think it's a general anti-science and anti-intellectual climate. From fundie villification of college to the election of Trump, there's a deep, deep mistrust of the pursuit of knowledge and "experts" in American culture (Hofstadter's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life remains disturbingly relevant more than 50 years after it was published). 

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2 hours ago, Jellybean said:

One of the things that I find extremely frustrating is the insistence that the section of Genesis that deals with the fall is taken so literally. Women ‘can’t’ have medical intervention for childbirth because it says in the Bible that it’s supposed to be unpleasant. I can’t think of any other situation in which medical professionals are so consistently vilified. Yes, childbirth is natural but death during childbirth is also ‘natural’ (for mother and/or baby).

I am not against homebirths in general but I live in a country with single-payer healthcare and well-trained midwives, so there is little to no financial reason to avoid antenatal care/monitoring, regardless of the birth plan, and there is no out of pocket cost to having 15 hospital births (or the same number of home deliveries attended by professionals). I can’t help but wonder if there’s a financial element to the strong emphasis on home births (possibly unattended and often following minimal antenatal care) in this group.

 

You're onto something there, Jellybean.  Every minimally/no antenatal care birth I've heard about was due to financial constraints.  Only one resulted in a still birth, which was one too much (but it could very well have happened with any birth, I know.)

There was no way in actual hell I would stand for any of my sisters or kid's births be so woefully lacking.

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What makes me angry is that the medical system in the U.S. is so broken that women are choosing homebirth out of fear of what could happen to them in the hospital, whether it's the high maternal mortality rate, massive medical debt, or consent violations during labor that leave new mothers traumatized. Our medical care is so fucked up that some people are afraid to give birth in a hospital. 

I've had one baby at home and one in the hospital. All I want is for women to be safe, respected, and have reliable medical care for themselves and their babies. :my_cry:

None of this is meant in any way to excuse this woman we're discussing. Prayer does not count as reliable medical care, sorry!

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I used to read a blog called Stand and Deliver about a Mormon woman who was big into unassisted birth (although she later had CNM birth.)  She is currently a professor and general intellectual.  It was interesting reading back when I was in my childbearing days.  

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I guess I was lucky. I had good hospital birthing experiences. I’m always shocked when people tell horror stories because it was so far from my experience. 

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34 minutes ago, LaLele said:

I used to read a blog called Stand and Deliver about a Mormon woman who was big into unassisted birth (although she later had CNM birth.)  She is currently a professor and general intellectual.  It was interesting reading back when I was in my childbearing days.  

Oh god, what a title! The visual I got was...interesting! :my_biggrin:

@JermajestyDuggar, both of my births sucked in different ways. Not a fan of either one. The hospital one, they gave me Pitocin and then the anesthetist got stuck downstairs in a surgery and couldn't give me an epidural. I was screaming--like, people could hear me from the waiting room across two closed doors, two hallways, and a nurses' station. Could not get on top of the contractions at all. 

The home one, I tore so badly I ended up going in for same-day outpatient surgery to repair it. 

I'm in favor of science enabling men to get pregnant instead of women, haha.

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1 hour ago, Lisafer said:

Oh god, what a title! The visual I got was...interesting! :my_biggrin:

@JermajestyDuggar, both of my births sucked in different ways. Not a fan of either one. The hospital one, they gave me Pitocin and then the anesthetist got stuck downstairs in a surgery and couldn't give me an epidural. I was screaming--like, people could hear me from the waiting room across two closed doors, two hallways, and a nurses' station. Could not get on top of the contractions at all. 

The home one, I tore so badly I ended up going in for same-day outpatient surgery to repair it. 

I'm in favor of science enabling men to get pregnant instead of women, haha.

I was screaming too. But thankfully one of the nurses got me to focus by getting my attention and being super firm in the way she talked. If she had been all sweet in the way she talked I would’ve just ignored her and kept screaming, lol. 

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13 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I was screaming too. But thankfully one of the nurses got me to focus by getting my attention and being super firm in the way she talked. If she had been all sweet in the way she talked I would’ve just ignored her and kept screaming, lol. 

This poor little student from the high school was observing/shadowing labor and delivery as part of an educational program. She was in my room for the whole shitshow of screaming and cussing. Probably effective birth control, lol!

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